This is at the beginning of the book "Sceulta Mhicil Uí Mhuigheasa Ó'n Rinn." I can understand most of it, but because when you look up certain words in the dictionary they seem to have quite a variety of meanings, so it isn't always that easy understanding them or the nuances between them. Of course the translation here is as close to the original as is possible.

D'réir úird Aibhighitir na Teangan as ar fháisceadh é. Is it the man himself being 'compressed (fáisceadh) into alphabetical order here?

A - Aoibhinn é a sheanchus, - Delightful he (in) his storytelling/knowledge of folklore ?

But that would be an t-uafás cirt. I'd say that ceart here is the adjective 'right, proper, real' - not the genitive plural of the noun. Uafás ceart, to me, means 'a real terror/awe'. It can't be 'terror of lying' since roimh would be the appropriate preposition there. I'm thinking it might mean something like 'wonderful, awesome(!) at lying.

And hundreds in pursuit/search of it.

Last edited by Errigal on Thu 31 May 2018 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My previous post was only half-complete when you replied - I somehow managed to omit half when editing. It's now complete - with my translation attempt. 'I'm not saying it 's right. More context would help.

Your translation 'an astonishing amount (of stories)' ignores ceart and chun éithigh. You've missed my point. I disagreed with Labhrás's version - 'a vast amount of right' - because that would have to be an t-uafás cirt. Check the dictionaries. When uafás is used idiomatically to mean 'an awful lot (of something)', it's always, as far as I know, an t-uafás (+ genitive of noun).

Yes of course. Is - ceart - used here as an intensifier ? and - éithigh ? would that be - falsehood ?- as storytelling is sometimes referred to telling lies ?

1- ceart: As I said in my first post , I think this is the adjective, not the genitive plural of the noun - same form for both, of course. You could call it an intensifier, I suppose: amadán ceart mé - 'I'm a right/real/proper fool'.

2- éithigh: this is the genitive singular of the noun éitheach - lying/lie/falsehood. Chun takes the genitive, hence chun éithigh - 'to lie/for lying/at lying' (often easier to translate it with the verb in English). I have no idea whether or not there's a connection with storytelling. I assume there's no more context. I did ask.

At the end of the alphabet, there's this line - "Mise annso agus fios agam" LIAM Ó MÍODHACHÁIN - but that doesn't add very much information, I'm afraid. This is what is on the preceding page, if that's any help:-